Development of the Automated Ultrasonic Testing System for Inspection of the flaw in the Socket Weldment

Socket weldment used to change the flow direction of fluid nay have flaws such as lack of fusion and cracks. Liquid penetrant testing or Radiography testing have been applied as NDT methods for flaw detection of the socket weldment. But it is difficult to detect the flaw inside of the socket weldment with these methods. In order to inspect the flaws inside the socket weldment, a ultrasonic testing method is established and a ultrasonic transducer and automated ultrasonic testing system are developed for the inspection. The automated ultrasonic testing system is based on the portable personal computer and operated by the program based Windows 98 or 2000. The system has a pulser/receiver, 100MHz high speed A/D board, and basic functions of ultrasonic flaw detector using the program. For the automated testing, motion controller board of ISA interface type is developed to control the 4-axis scanner and a real time iC-scan image of the automated testing is displayed on the monitor. A flaws with the size of less than 1mm in depth are evaluated smaller than its actual site in the testing, but the flaws larger than 1mm appear larger than its actual size on the contrary. This tendency is shown to be increasing as the flaw size increases. h reliable and objective testing results are obtained with the developed system, so that it is expected that it can contribute to safety management and detection of repair position of pipe lines of nuclear power plants and chemical plants.